Real Talk re Adderall: How it hurts your performance & how to prevent it from hurting your performance? Forum

[Legal Eagle87]

Standard disclaimer: I've never taken Adderall except as my licensed medical practitioner so prescribes, directs, instructs, and supervises. I'm sure the same goes for anyone who decides to respond ITT.

With all the talk about how Adderall is a "neuroenhancer" and how you're either in the arms race or you're out, has anyone considered how it may actually undermine your performance on a time pressure exam, on which you'd have a lot of natural adrenaline anyway, thus pushing your arousal state into diminishing returns and eventually negative returns? I.e., it actually cognitively impairs more than it "enhances"?

NB: This isn't just about its detrimental side effects. I'm saying its main, cognitive effects also don't always work as intended.

1. Physiological side effects. GI issues, muscle cramps/tensions/aches. Yes drink water but when your GI & muscles act up, your mind thinks about holding that fart in, how fast your foot's tapping. Doesn't this distract from your concentration more than Adderall itself helps it?

2. Too anxious to know where to begin to speak or write. You're thinking "so fast" that you're thinking nothing at all, and have no idea to start your 5th grade "hamburger" paragraph.

3. When you do actually begin, inability to distinguish threads worth pursuing and threads better left forgotten. You think every thought, every sentence, every paragraph you write is just pure genius. Even though your sober professor/evaluator reads paragraph 4 as "hmmm, clever indeed," but paragraph 5 as utterly incoherent spew from a broken faucet.

Leading to 4. Since you think your current train of thought is "up there" with Brandeis, Friendly, etc, you write it to the bitter end even though you should've transitioned into something more fruitful 7 sentences and 10 minutes ago.

And 5. It deludes you into thinking you can "do anything," that you can write this current paragraph in 10 minutes, tops, no problem; *20 minutes later*, you realize you only have 10 minutes to address Question4 (allotted time 30minutes). So now you can write but only incoherent crap.

Ever consider the irony in how something designed to improve the organization of people whose disorder (sidelining for the moment whether disorder belongs in "") leaves them disorganize...instead further impairs their organization, time management, etc.?

6. So, Adderall experts, how do you guard against the above on a time-pressure exam so that you can actually tap into its benefits (which, tbh, after accounting for the above, I'm not even sure what they are anymore).

And finally, 7. If biglaw truly gives you no weekend breaks and gives you 60-70hr+ workweeks, there's just no way Adderall 5-7 days a week, 12-14hrs a day can be sustainable for 4-5yrs. Just no way. I've heard the most enthusiastic Adderall "users" flat out pitifully laugh at the notion of "just chain Adderall for 12hrs a day, Ambien/40% to fall asleep, repeat for 350/365 days, for 5yrs)."

I ask all of this neither to encourage nor condemn Adderall use. You do what you gotta do. But seriously, 1) is there a smart way to use it, and 2) when is enough enough?

[FutureLitigator]

It seems as if you already made up your mind about taking the Adderall...I would say the safe way to go about it is take how much you feel is necessary, and definitely not exceed the amount prescribed. Also keep in mind just because your doctor prescribes you something doesn't mean you should take it. If you can go days without it, do so, then come back and you can decide if there is a smart way to use it, and when enough is enough. Because it only can apply to you, you can't answer that for someone else! (Nor are you certified to do so.) Nobody can answer this for you, unless they tell you something that you don't want to hear.

[Legal Eagle87]

Am I the only one who experiences the above on tests etc? Is it just a matter of taking too high a dosage? Because I never take more than prescribed.

[JGMotorsport]

My experience in UG was that I had the energy and ability to do long mindless tasks for hours at a time.

Law School unfortunately isn't mindless and I found myself missing endless detail and conceptual issues while using. So I don't.

Eat healthy, have an apple in the morning and drink lots of coffee seems to work for me.

[NotMyRealName09]

You wrote this on adderal, didn't you?

[NotMyRealName09]

My experience in UG was that I had the energy and ability to do long mindless tasks for hours at a time.

Law School unfortunately isn't mindless and I found myself missing endless detail and conceptual issues while using. So I don't.

Eat healthy, have an apple in the morning and drink lots of coffee seems to work for me.

Not the same, I know, but as a person without actual ADD, I snorted ritalin a few times in UG to write a philosophy paper or the like, and it destroyed my ability to write creatively and well. Sure you can plow through hours of work, but your writing sounds like shit. I was never happy with me work product when I re-read it days after I turned it in.

I've tried adderal a few times too, different effect and I never tried studying with it, but I suspect it would impact my writing too. Like it helps you "zone in" on something and hit it full force, but in some legal writing you need to follow the tangent, roll with an argument organically without the, I don't know, the myopia these drugs can produce, so I don't know, my 2 cents.

[Maplesyrup]

if all else fails you can always go to the crystal

[landshoes]

you're taking too much

[Legal Eagle87]

you're taking too much

So it's just a matter of lowering the dosage? I can see it lessening physical/GI side effects, but the horseblinders & delusions of grandeur ("my pen flows like Brandeis!")...doesn't that happen @ lower doses too?

Honestly, I've never taken more than prescribed. I actually started off taking less than prescribed, and less frequently than prescribed (daily).

Law School unfortunately isn't mindless and I found myself missing endless detail and conceptual issues while using. So I don't.

. Yea. If it was a matter of undergraduate problem sets @ 3am, that's one thing. But law exams (and briefs/memos/etc) take twists and turns and if you go down one too far, it'll be hard to get reorganized.
Not to mention the wasted time.

So you "don't." So you just stopped *like that*? Doesn't withdrawal (nap all the time, don't want to do anything) last 2-3months+? The problem is, once 1L begins, there's no convenient 3 month stretch where you can afford to nap all the time and do nothing.

[rpupkin]

You wrote this on adderal, didn't you?

[Legal Eagle87]

You wrote this on adderal, didn't you?

No. I've expressed the sentiments above (in messages & FB here and there). It may appear long but again, that's because Adderall's flaws are indeed that numerous. And I just limited it to flaws relevant to law school academics.
To say nothing of the depersonalization & social dimensions.

[20160810]

Are we thinking this was going to work better if you didn't post it in the Lounge?

Same answer is same: People on here aren't doctors, they aren't going to be able to give you good advice on managing your medication, but judging by your weirdo manic posting style shooting 90mg/day into your peen0r is probably not the best idea.

[Legal Eagle87]

Reposted from lounge b/c Anonymouse said previous threads at least had the sense to post it in the LSAT forum instead of the Lounge.

No one's a doctor who can dispense medical advice but they can share their experiences.

[landshoes]

you're taking too much

So it's just a matter of lowering the dosage? I can see it lessening physical/GI side effects, but the horseblinders & delusions of grandeur ("my pen flows like Brandeis!")...doesn't that happen @ lower doses too?

Honestly, I've never taken more than prescribed. I actually started off taking less than prescribed, and less frequently than prescribed (daily).

Law School unfortunately isn't mindless and I found myself missing endless detail and conceptual issues while using. So I don't.

. Yea. If it was a matter of undergraduate problem sets @ 3am, that's one thing. But law exams (and briefs/memos/etc) take twists and turns and if you go down one too far, it'll be hard to get reorganized.
Not to mention the wasted time.

So you "don't." So you just stopped *like that*? Doesn't withdrawal (nap all the time, don't want to do anything) last 2-3months+? The problem is, once 1L begins, there's no convenient 3 month stretch where you can afford to nap all the time and do nothing.

yeah lower the dose. 3 month withdrawals? dude just taper. and take less.